"Meet me for lunch?" the text message from Harry read. So, Monday August thirty, just before noon, Ginny (and Mitzi, of course) sauntered into the second floor of the Ministry of Magic. Against one wall were the offices of her father, Dennis Creevey, and her husband, plus offices of a couple of other senior staff. On one side of the large room were the cubicles for the Aurors, with slightly larger cubicles for the shift supervisors in the front. On the other side were cubicles for some of the personal in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, although patrol officers only had lockers, without their own cubicle.
One of the changes that Arthur and Harry had made was the addition of branch offices, including one in Hogsmeade staffed by two Aurors, and one in Diagon Alley staffed by a larger number of DMLE patrol officers.
Ginny walked down the hall that separated the cubicles from the offices and conference rooms. There were secretarial and staff desks in front of the offices. Ginny noticed that Mary Lou Creevey was not at her desk, which was not unusual. Mary Lou did make sure that there was someone either at one of the desks or in the day room with all the maps and other magical ways the DMLE kept track of what was going on, plus the Muggle televisions, twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.
"Hello, Gail," Ginny greeted the witch closest to Harry's office. "How are you today?"
"I'm fine, Ginny," the older witch replied. "It has been years since I have had to worry about getting a child ready for Hogwarts. You must be busy, though. I gather you do some of the shopping for Hermione's children as well."
Ginny gave Gail a rueful smile. "A much larger group than I ever though I would be responsible for. Hermione has no patience to go clothes shopping with her daughter! I don't really mind. How are things in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?"
"It has been a quiet day so far," Gail Wheatley replied, "although we are a little busy getting ready to guard the Hogwarts Express the day after tomorrow. Actually your husband is worried that it is too quiet, but you know Harry. He worries if things are happening, and he worries if things are not happening."
"He feels it is his job to worry," Ginny admitted. "We are meeting for lunch."
Harry's door was open, and Harry arose and met Ginny. "The cafeteria is sending up food for the three of us," Harry told his wife as he handed menus to Ginny and Mitzi. Both filled in their choices. Harry charmed his already filled out menu and the other two into paper airplanes, and the three menus flew down to the cafeteria.
Harry waved his wand, and the room rearranged itself to have a dining height table and chairs for the three beings, and they all sat down to wait for the food.
"Minerva and the staff want all the students to come by train this year, including Albus and Cleo," Harry told Ginny August thirty. "Scorpius is one of the Slytherin prefects this year, and Rose is a Prefect for Gryffindor, so they really need to ride the train."
"Albus and Cleo are not Prefects, though," Ginny reflected.
"Minerva told me that just like I was never a Prefect, because I had too much pressure to do other things, she thinks Albus and Cleo are going to be too busy to be Prefects."
"I can understand that," Ginny replied. "I was not a Prefect, but I was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team my last year."
"I'm worried about the train trip," Harry told Ginny. "I am going to have our extended family on the train before anyone else boards, and we have strengthened the anti-Apparition spells on the train. The Dementors are angry at our whole family, and I have a bad feeling about the next few years. I know you do not like how often I have been away for a day or two, but I need to stay involved with the International Auror's Association to understand what risks are out there and do my best to keep everyone safe."
There was a knock on the door, and a witch from the cafeteria appeared, levitating meals and drinks for the three beings.
Harry, Ginny and Mitzi spent the next few minutes enjoying an excellent meal; Muggles would say it was a very good meal for cafeteria food, but with magic that was expected.
When the meal was finished, Ginny told Harry, "I will try and have all of the children ready to go to the Hogwarts Express tomorrow evening. Are we still planning on having the students get to the station using the Closet between twelve and thirteen Grimmauld Place?"
"Yes," Harry replied. "I know some other families are going to want to use our Closet as well, which is fine, but that is another reason why I want our family and their close friends to be at the station before anyone else."
"I'm almost certain that Narcissa is planning on bringing Scorpius and Cleo over to our house by Floo first thing in the morning, Harry. I will make sure she knows to get to our house very early."
*
September first Harry drove the special Range Rover onto the train tracks and had it drive into the station and settle right in front of the Hogwarts Express. There was just enough intelligence for him to be paranoid about this trip. He then entered Platform 9-3/4 and waited.
Once the train was ready to leave, Harry entered the Range Rover and led the Hogwarts Express out of Kings Cross Station. A short way out of the station the Hogwarts Express, with its newer diesel engine and the newer train cars, pulled into a siding, and the old steam Hogwarts Express Engine and a few of the oldest, retired, train cars pulled out.
"Motorcycle escorts, are you in place?" Harry radioed from inside the Range Rover.
"Escorts for the older train waiting," answered one of the motorcycles. Harry knew that there were a pair of the big Auror Gray Honda Gold Wing motorcycles that would shadow the older train, and another pair that would fly above and just ahead of the newer train with all the students.
"Driver and attack wizard in place," another one of the motorcycles added. Each motorcycle had a driver and another wizard riding on it.
Fifteen minutes after the old engine and cars pulled onto the track Harry radioed, "Hogwarts Express, you may proceed."
"Proceeding at original speed, staying fifteen minutes, more or less, behind the decoy train," the engineer replied.
*
"Do you know why we have pulled into this siding?" Louis Weasley, the head boy and quite obviously, this year at least, in charge of the Prefects, asked Scorpius and Rose.
They both shook their heads 'no.'
Louis had the mobile that all Prefects were required to carry and called his uncle.
"Hello, Uncle Harry. The Hogwarts Express has pulled into a siding and stopped. I thought you ought to know."
...
"You do know?"
...
"I will tell the other Prefects, and we will let the rest of the train know. Thank you, Uncle Harry."
Louis turned to the other Prefects. "The train will stay here about fifteen minutes, more or less. Then it should start again. Harry Potter told me he knows about it, and it does not seem to be anything to worry about. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement knows what is going on.
"You are all dismissed to go through the train and reassure everyone. Meet back here is about half an hour."
*
"It is not like you two to be the last at anything," Louis reflected as Scorpius and Rose came into the Prefects' compartment, almost forty-five minutes after the Prefects had left to talk to the other occupants of the train.
"Well, we all had a certain area we needed to cover, and we kept getting delayed," Scorpius complained.
"Do you care to share why?" Louis wondered.
"There was a rumor that Scorpius and I were boyfriend and girlfriend," Rose scowled, before giggling. "Once we admitted that we were, people kept asking questions. Half of them didn't even know that the train had stopped."
"Well, we are moving again," Louis replied, stating the obvious. He then continued to go over everything that the prefects needed to know, and made sure all the prefects knew each other.
*
Harry Potter exited the Auror Range Rover, along with Dobedo and Auror Jim Shook, and let the DMLE driver move the automobile off the train tracks. He watched as the old train engine and train cars drive onto a spur that had just been constructed, and then as the Hogwarts Express came into the Hogsmeade station about ten minutes late.
"Any problems, Harry?" Hagrid wondered as the actual train with students on board pulled into the station.
"None," Harry admitted. "If you take extra precautions because of rumors and nothing happens, you are in trouble for spending unnecessary money and resources for nothing. If you don't take precautions and something does happen, you should have been more careful. There is no way to be right all of the time."
"Minerva said the train might be a little late, Harry. Considering your history, no one blames you for being extra cautious.
"First years, follow me," Hagrid announced, and gradually he corralled all of the first years and led them to the boats for their ride to Hogwarts Castle.
*
One of the first people sorted into Slytherin was Emily Bulstrode. She went over to speak to her sister, and then sat at the first year end of the table. Tom Carrow was next.
"I wonder if he is related to the Carrow who presides at weddings and funerals?" Albus wondered.
"He is small, and that wizard is a small, short person," Scorpius reflected. "I will ask him."
Several foreign students were sorted into Slytherin.
When Lillian Malfoy was sorted into Slytherin Albus remarked, "I've seen her here with her parents. They have re-rented the dance studio they had before, and are trying to rebuild their business, but Professor McGonagall is letting them live here another year."
"I cannot imagine my father helping them," Scorpius bitched. "My father is not a nice person.
"They probably need to live here because they don't have enough money. Maybe Mrs. Hudson and I can write an article about them working to rebuild their business and help them."
"Lillian has a younger brother," Albus reflected. "He will probably join his sister next year or the year after. I'm not quite sure how old the two of them are, and when their birthdays are."
Shortly after Lillian was sorted two girls were sorted into Gryffindor, one after the other, Daya Purva Slughorn and Devika Ilisha Slughorn.
"I wonder how they are related to Professor Slughorn," Scorpius said. "I wonder why they were sorted into Gryffindor and not Slytherin."
Albus shrugged. More things to find out.
The last person sorted into Slytherin was Katrina VadDer Raaltee, joining a brother and sister who were already in Slytherin.
As the students were dismissed to go to their dormitories' Scorpius remarked to Albus, "No one said anything about the train being late, or mentioned the old train engine and cars on that new siding."
"I would not write anything about any of that until we talk to my father about it," Albus counseled.
*
"Why was the Hogwarts Express delayed, and what was the old Hogwarts Express engine doing on that new siding in Hogsmeade, dad?" Albus asked his father, calling him on his mobile as soon as the Slytherin students were in their dormitory.
"You don't know, Albus," Harry told his son. "That is the truth, and that is what I want you to tell people if they ask. I would not admit that you used your mobile to talk to me about it. Tell Scorpius not to write about it."
"Yes, sir," Albus replied. He was not sure if it really was nothing much, or if he should be worried about the Hogwarts Express. Albus added concerns about the safety of the Hogwarts Express to a world of other things he worried about.
*
"My name is Louis Weasley, and I am Head Boy, the Gryffindor seventh-year wizard prefect," Louis announced. "As usual, there are enough Gryffindor students to have two witch dormitories' and two wizard dormitories'. Prefects will take you to your rooms. Once there you will meet an Elf who will be taking care of your room. You need to become friends with the Elf; if Merlin forbid any of you is in trouble your Elf can Apparate to where you are and rescue you, but only if you know them by name.
"Just because it is safer than it was during your parents' time, do not think that there will never be a reason to ask for help. During my time here we have had at least two students who broke a bone and needed to be rescued, one who became hopelessly lost, and at least a couple of additional times that students were very grateful for the ability to call on an Elf for help. I do not expect that any of the students would have died without the Elf help, but it was most appreciated by everyone."
Louis called out the names of all the new students, including a couple who were in second year. All of the prefects ended up accompanying students to their rooms.
Cleo sought out Colin Creevey II, Christy and Sheryl Shook, and the four of them started to talk about the band and music. Percival Frobisher sauntered over to the group and sneered, "Rose still an ice queen? She and Malfoy still together?"
"They are quite sexually compatible, at least when it comes to a little innocent snogging and holding," Cleo replied. "Gotten into Cassie Starkey's knickers yet?"
Everyone who heard sniggered, and Percy went away in a huff.
"Cleo," Hanna McGonagall gasped, "Rose and Malfoy are together?"
Cleo nodded.
"Like, boyfriend and girlfriend, like kissing and, like together?"
Cleo nodded again.
Hanna immediately sought out Patty Finnigan, eager to share the gossip.
Of course all the fifth year girls had to gather around Rose that evening to grill her about her and Scorpius, to Rose's great annoyance.
*
"Being a Potter isn't enough to become a prefect, I see," Cassie jested, as the Slytherin prefects left with the first year, and a couple of new second year, students.
"My father was never a prefect either," Albus casually remarked. "He only defeated Tom Riddle."
"Your cousin still an ice queen?" Cassie pressed.
"No, not at all," Albus laughed. "Percy get into your knickers yet?"
Xenia Avery gasped, "Cassie, you are going with a Gryffindor? How is your mother handling that?"
Mack Goyle heard the conversation. He arose, walked over to Cassie, and standing too close suggested, "You need a manly pure blood like me, not wimpy Percy."
"We are a refined, upper class family," Cassie snottily insisted. "I need to marry someone who can circulate in our social circle, not a brute!"
Mack's fists closed and opened a few times, as he struggled to hold his temper. He had been unable to retain a dance partner, and not even the Slytherin girls wanted to get too close to him.
*
It was Saturday, September fourth. Albus and Scorpius arose from breakfast and walked over towards the Gryffindor table. Rose and Cleo arose and went to meet them.
Rose and Scorpius kissed, snogged really, and separated, holding hands. Rose was eager to signal that she was taken, and Scorpius always enjoyed Rose putting her body against his.
Hanna McGonagall and Patty Finnigan led a group of Gryffindor girls in applause, along with a few catcalls.
Scorpius bowed towards the group. "I take it the Gryffindor witches know that we are a couple," he remarked to Rose.
Rose blushed, grinning.
Albus and Cleo kissed more chastely.
"What is James doing?" Albus wondered, as he saw James talking to a large group of what he knew were Quidditch players from all the houses.
"From what I understand," Rose explained, "James is getting together all the really good Quidditch players for a day of flying. Not really playing Quidditch so much as practicing shooting, practicing blocking, just having fun. I guess they are not even going to release a snitch."
"I could use a day to relax," Scorpius volunteered. "Last week with my father it was nothing but arguments and tension."
"I will gladly do nothing with you," Rose beamed in response.
"I'd like to change clothes," Cleo informed the group.
"Meet at the main doors?" Albus asked.
"Yes!" Cleo exclaimed.
*
Albus wore sturdy shoes, a sturdy pair of shorts, and a T-shirt as he met the girls. Scorpius also wore sturdy shoes, but his shorts and shirt were somehow more stylish, looked more like he could have been dressed to be in an advertisement.
Cleo wore the same outfit she had worn when she and Albus had spent time wandering the Potter property next to The River Otter, the same shoes, shorts, and strappy top.
Cleo and Albus garnered an extra glance from Cinnamon Appleleaf, who was watching as the students left Hogwarts to spend time on the grounds. It was a perfect day to lounge outside, and she reflected probably better that the students were out in public than finding nooks and crannies in the castle to hide in, and snog, and more, something she was familiar with during her and her husband's last year as Hogwarts students.
Professor Tom Appleleaf was taking his four children towards the greenhouses.
"I think they are going to see the Sprout children," Cleo suggested, pointing towards Professor Mr. Appleleaf and the children.
Rose had put on a short pair of shorts, medium rise. She had on a thin shirred top that she pulled up some when she saw Professor Appleleaf looking at Albus and Cleo. The top did not come down to her navel, exposing some of her middle. Rose and Scorpius also garnered an extra glance from Professor Cinnamon.
"Is Professor Appleleaf going to talk to you two?" Albus wondered once they were well away from the doors.
"She is spending more time talking to the witches," Rose replied. "One of the reasons they hired that French teacher, Professor Gryffindor, was to give Professor Mrs. Cinnamon Appleleaf some more time to talk to the witches. I don't think we are in trouble." Rose looked at all four of them. "I do not think Professor Appleleaf is fond of short shorts, on witches or wizards."
"There are very strong spells at Hogwarts to keep witches from becoming pregnant before they are sixteen," Cleo observed. "They even discourage what you have to do to get pregnant. I can feel them. It is different than at the New Burrow or other places. I guess when a witch turns sixteen they talk to you."
"I understand that this year witches and wizards will receive the first of three talks about sex," Albus told the group. "Students will be turning sixteen during this year."
The two couples were able to spend much of the day Saturday wandering the grounds, with some kissing and holding. The two couples even engaged in a modest amount of serious snogging.
That evening the regular Saturday Evening church services started.
*
Sunday afternoon the witches were gathered together in the Great Hall for a talk about sex.
The following Sunday afternoon it was the wizard's turn. It was stressed to both classes that the lack of a NO did not mean YES, and that they could be accused of rape unless the witch had procured contraceptive potions from the Matrons beforehand.
The talks were very explicit.
*
"I am going to be teaching this class this year," Professor Longbottom told the Defense against the Dark Arts class. Only about half the number of students in fifth year were taking Defense against the Dark Arts, and there were only two fifth year DADA classes. Almost all the Gryffindor and Slytherin students were in the same class. "Harry Potter wants this year's class to spend a fair amount of time in dueling. I understand that later this year he may even come and give pointers."
Albus found that he was called on to be a helper in the class as much as a student. Cleo was becoming more consistent, normally better than anyone that Albus.
*
Olivia Ollivander taught the fifth year Charms classes. She told the class early in the year, "You are all going to be asked to develop your own spells this year. Have any of you developed your own spells?"
Cleo raised her hand.
"Miss Smith, would you please tell the class what spells you have developed."
"Mrs. Potter purchased scent making ingredients and spells for me Christmas my first year, but I've developed the spells, refined them. I've also found new ways to tell if couples are good couples. Some of it may have to do with my wand; I can teach others some of what I know, but not everything."
Professor Ollivander wanted to examine Cleo's wand, really wanted to possess it, but the wand had made it very clear that it wanted Cleo as its owner. You could tell when Cleo talked to Professor Ollivander that there was tension between the two.
Scorpius volunteered that he had refined the spells you used to copy information in writing a paper or article.
Albus asked to speak to the professor after class. Albus told Professor Ollivander after class that he had developed spells with his father, but that they were confidential. "I will work on developing a new spell for this class, Professor," he told Professor Ollivander.
Rose had talked to her mother about developing spells, but she had never been able to figure out anything except what she had been taught. Once more Rose was reminded that she was not like her mother.
*
Professor Godiva Gryffindor very much wanted to teach the fifth year Transfiguration class. She knew that many of the Magic and Elf Language Learners were in fifth year, and she wanted to meet them. She was aware of Scorpius's articles, and it was hard to not know about Harry Potter, his son Albus, and Albus's girlfriend and apparent soulmate Cleopatra.
The first week and a half Professor Gryffindor just had all the students show her how they did some of the standard, more advanced fourth year transfigurations. Then she told the students, "You cannot transfigure anything into anything else. If I gave you an assignment to perform a transfiguration, how many of you could tell me if it was possible or not."
Albus raised his hand.
"How could you tell, Albus?" Professor Gryffindor asked.
"I would try to do it with my wand," he replied. "The wand will resist, and it will not work, if you cannot do it. I can feel a difference between not knowing how to do something and not being able to do it.
"Sometimes it is possible to transfigure something into an intermediate thing. Some of it has to do with what things are made of. It is easier to do a temporary transfiguration, make something that looks like something else and even acts like something else, than it is to really change something permanently. The two things have to be made of almost all the same atoms for a change to be permanent. That is why you cannot change non-food things into food."
"Very good, Albus," the professor replied. "Five points for Slytherin.
"I have red, orange, and green balls here. I want you to try and turn each of them into tea. Put the ball in a tea cup, and tell me which balls can become tea, which cannot, and why."
All the students took three tea cups and a ball of each color.
Albus could tell that the red ball was originally tea with sugar, and that the red outer skin of the ball was originally the sugar. He turned it into tea with sugar easily. The green ball was originally tea leaves. It needed to be brewed with water. He changed it into green tea and left the un-brewed leaves in the next cup. The third ball was originally a Muggle golf ball, and Albus changed it back.
Cleo did what she usually did. She rode on the surface of Albus's thoughts, and then duplicated what he did. Cleo could feel the magic that Albus felt when she knew what he was doing.
Scorpius went through all the spells he knew to figure out what each ball was, and eventually figured it out.
Rose and about half the class were lost, knowing some spells that might tell you what something was originally, but not having been taught these specific spells.
When they were through with class Albus remarked to his friends, "That was not too hard."
Scorpius reflected, "It wasn't easy. You had to use spells you knew, but then change them. You had to feel the magic, not just know it. It is like inventing a new spell. You have to start with something, but then feel how to change it."
"What if you cannot feel it?" Rose wondered. "Learning is easy for me, but feeling how to change things when you do not know is hard. This is going to be a hard year for me."
*
As September turned into October the weather turned a little less favorable. Albus, Rose, Scorpius and Cleo found themselves spending more time studying, although they still make time for relaxing. Saturday October ninth Rose remarked, as the group took a break from studying and relaxed in the Portrait Room, the room next to the Great Hall where you could meet and study without being quiet, "Nothing is happening. Maybe we will have a normal, unexciting school year."
Albus looked at his cousin. "It would be nice," he admitted. "Even the O.W.L.'s do not seem that they will be that difficult."
"I still want to receive all outstanding's on my O.W.L.'s Scorpius insisted.
"It is not as important to me as it once was," Rose admitted. "I still want to do my best, but I'm not going to feel I'm a failure if I don't get the best marks possible."
2021